Ann Arbor is a wonderful place to live. It does have long winters but the short springs, summers, and autumns are delightful. It's the home to the University of Michigan, a top ten university that I graduated from two years ago. The university also spawns a large number of intellectual institutions such art museums, natural history museums, concert halls and theaters.
I live in a one room, studio apartment near the city center. It's small, but usually enough for me. I free lance as a graphic artist and web designer. I have enough work to pay the bills and squirrel enough away to hopefully buy a place of my own for cash in a couple of years.
Whenever I feel that I need some space, I go to my parent's house. Its about twenty minutes away and they have more space than they need since I graduated and my older sister got married three years ago. Everything I need is on my laptop and as long as I have an internet connection I can communicate with my clients and get the assignments done.
My sister, Evelyn, and her husband live near Lansing. Roger is a manager in an Amazon Hub Locker near Lansing and Evelyn works part time at the local library.
As much as mom and dad, that's Georgia and Ralph to their friends, like Ann Arbor they like to get away and "go native" sometimes as dad refers to it. His description over states the reality. Dad would be shocked at what "going native" means to most people today. They own a two bedroom, log cabin near Marquette in the Upper Peninsula. They go there on long weekends and we, mom, dad, Evelyn, Roger and me, Adam, generally gather there for a week or more twice a year. During the winter, we snowshoe, cross-country ski, ice fish and sit around the large, native stone fireplace to keep warm.
In the summer, we swim in the nearby lake, fish, hike and sit around the bonfire in the evening to drink iced tea. We've never "gone native" to my knowledge, at least not while my sister or I have been present.
This year we had some problems coordinating our schedules so our annual winter excursion to the cabin had been delayed. We were still trying to find an appropriate date as March approached. We were still uncoordinated when our Governor dropped the State of Emergency declaration on Tuesday, March tenth.
Dad is a news junkie and he divined that things were going to get worse before they got better and if we were going to get to the cabin it had to be soon. Mom and dad decided to head north on Saturday for a week. Dad calculated that they'd be back before the worse happened. They phoned me and told me about their plans and they also told Evelyn and Roger. If we wanted to join them we were welcome and if not, that was okay too.
It was an easy decision for me. Work was slow at the moment and all I needed was my laptop and a week's worth of clothing and I was set. The cabin had a satellite internet link so I could even work it I had to.
Evelyn and Roger had a more difficult time getting free, but by Thursday, Roger had arranged for time off and Evelyn just told folks she was unavailable for the next two weeks.
The plan came together quickly. I planned to drive up to the cabin with a load of food and other necessities on Friday and get the cabin aired out and ready for the rest of the family to arrive on Saturday.
I left very early Friday morning. The drive was between six and a half and eight hours, depending on traffic and the number of stops for gas other necessities. The trip was fairly scenic especially over the Mackinac Bridge connecting lower Michigan to upper Michigan. I managed the trip in less than seven hours and arrived at the cabin by a little after noon. There was snow on the ground everywhere but there were signs of it slowly melting in the mid thirties daily temperatures. The last five hundred yards from the paved two-lane road to the cabin was unpaved but still mostly frozen making the trip less difficult than I anticipated.
The cabin was in pretty good condition. I turned on the electricity, opened windows to air it out and brought in the week's worth of food from the car and stored it appropriately. I brought in the bed clothing and made the beds in the two bedrooms. Mom and dad would sleep in one bedroom, Evie and Roger in the other. I would sleep on the oversized leather sofa in front of the also oversized fireplace.
Outside, I knocked the frozen snow off the woodpile and brought in enough wood for the fireplace to last several days. I was done with the immediate tasks by four and, after closing the windows and starting a nice fire in the fireplace, I settled down to get the wifi network up and running and confirming we still had satellite internet service and television. We didn't have cell phone service so I sent mom and dad a brief "alls well" email and set up wifi calling on my cell phone so I would have voice communications.
With everything set up and working, I made a sandwich for dinner and settled in to read in front of the fire.
I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up as the sun was rising over the lake and streaming through the bare trees. I ate a lingering breakfast while continuing to read and settled in to wait for the rest of the crew to arrive.
Mom and dad arrived mid afternoon and Evie and Roger about an hour later. After checking everything out and moving into their respective bedrooms, we took a walk down to the lake. It was peaceful and very quiet. You could hear the birdcalls over the frozen water and the sounds of ice falling off the trees as it melted and lost purchase.
The week together went exactly as expected. We had nothing to do except kick back and relax. I kept in touch with my email but I found nothing pressing that couldn't wait. We walked every day, sometimes twice a day. Monday, dad dragged Roger and me out on the lake with his shed, to drill a hole in the ice and fish. We were moderately successful and we had fish for dinner that night. Our success encouraged dad enough that he dragged us out again on Thursday but without a single nibble.
On Friday afternoon, mom and dad made preparations to leave the next day. Evie and Roger had planned to stay for two weeks and I had no plans so I thought I'd stay with them. Mom and dad left Saturday morning and Roger and Evie went out to the general store to replenish our food supply for the next week. They returned with a case of beer as well as food. The beer was welcome as dad didn't believe beer and nature mixed and hadn't brought any. Their leaving also meant that I had a bedroom to sleep in instead of the sofa.
The weekend went well, especially with the addition of beer. The three of us sat outside Saturday and Sunday afternoon sipping cold beer and inside both evenings with more beer. We laughed as we reminisced about times past and related oft repeated stories about the foibles of the family and our friends. It promised to be a fun week without the "old folks" around to dampen our fun.
Things changed Monday morning. Roger got an email that required his immediate attention. I set up his phone over wifi so he could talk directly with his office. He couldn't resolve the issue over the phone and announced he needed to leave immediately to address the problem in person. It seemed his job was considered essential by the government and he had to be at work every day during the emergency.
We discussed the situation and Evie decided to stay behind and help me close up the cabin and come back with me early in the week. I'd drive her home with their stuff and then continue to mom and dad's to unload the rest before I headed home. Roger agreed although I think he had misgivings and left within a half hour. Evie talked with him that evening. She told him she missed him and he told her he had resolved everything at work and could come back up in the next day. She discussed it with him and told him we, Evie and I, were planning on leaving Tuesday or Wednesday and his trip seemed excessive for the potential benefit. Roger agreed to wait until Evie got home to see her.
Later that evening, Evie and I sat on the sofa in front of the fire. We sipped our beers and mused about our lives. At one point, Evie said, "Adam, this is really nice."
"It is isn't it?" I asked.
"It is. It's been years since we've had time with just the two of us and we've never been alone together up here in the cabin."
"True. Do you miss it?"
"I do. We were always close as kids and I often think about it and how much I miss your wit and sarcasm."
"I think that's a complement," I offered.
